Playstation All-Stars: Tough Times
by Coleiosis
Summary: The Los Angeles Apple Orphanage is in danger of being taken over by Tyhrranoids sent by Calypso! In the meantime, Sweet Tooth plans to become president of Marcadia, and Mr Grimm plans to become mayor of Metropolis on Kerwan! What will Ratchet and the good guys do to protect the universe? Rated T for scary situations, blood, and violence


Playstation All-Stars: Tough Times

Chapter One – Ratchet's Nightmare

It all started one day, where there was no evil to be around and torment innocent bystanders. It was all just a nice, quiet and peaceful day; the perfect day to be strolling in the park. That idea mostly struck Ratchet as "wholesome," especially the fact that he finally met up with his long-lost girlfriend, Sasha Phyronix.

Her father, President Phyronix, was the president of the planet Marcadia for four years. He stands strong as a great ruler. But his term of presidency may be very close to an end, and maybe some sort of evil would try to take over office. And, the last time Ratchet saw Sasha, she was already elected mayor of the city of Metropolis on the planet Kerwan. She later informed Ratchet and Clank of a danger that was lurking in the shadows, but at one point, Ratchet's and Sasha's transmission communicators were cut off. During that time, she tried to keep track of them even though she could not communicate all through her term as mayor.

Ratchet and Sasha were sitting on a rest bench at a park on the planet Earth. After about a half hour of talking and discussing their recent whereabouts, Ratchet thought that now was the perfect opportunity to ask her that one big question that everybody asks their girlfriends. Ratchet got up from the bench, then knelt down on his left knee and spoke: "You know, Sasha, it's been a long time since we've seen each other, and it's about time that I asked you. Things may have been difficult, but we've gone through them and never gave up hope. So I'm going to ask you this…" Ratchet reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny box, then opened it to reveal a ring with a sparkling white diamond on top. He finished his sentence in the most comforting and happy manner: "Will you marry me?"

Sasha looked down at the ring and saw how pretty the diamond was. But she almost pleaded after a thought came to her mind. "We've hardly known each other," she whispered. Right before she was about to say something, an ice cream truck sped by her and Ratchet, playing hard-core heavy metal music.

Ratchet knew exactly who was driving that particular truck that had an evil clown head on it. "Sasha, I'm sorry. I know this breed; he's a killer and he's my worst nemesis. We've got to get to safety quickly!"

Sasha already understood Ratchet about the situation. "Oh, Ratchet! I want to listen and believe you! But who is this guy exactly?"

The ice cream truck turned around to face Ratchet and Sasha. The driver of the truck stepped out of the vehicle and laughed hard, full of evil. "You'll find out in a second," he said. "I am Needles Kane, otherwise known as Sweet Tooth. And I am going to be your worst nightmare! Today, I have brought a little present to show you. You might remember it." Sweet Tooth walked around his truck and opened the rear doors to get something from the back room that held all of his weapons. He pulled out a rocket launcher, one that Ratchet had seen before. Sweet Tooth went back around, carrying the big launcher and pointing it at Ratchet and Sasha. "Yes, of course. You HAVE seen this before. This is my atom manipulator; the one that I used back at the Opposite Dimension that merely melted down Opposite Yellow Jacket. This time, I shall use this on a PERSON! I added some tweaks to make this a better weapon. It's time to say good-bye, Ratchet and girlfriend!" Sweet Tooth pulled the trigger of the launcher, causing a laser to fire.

Unexpectedly, Sasha pushed Ratchet out of the way before the laser could reach him. She allowed herself to be hit by the laser, but that was not all that was to be done of the peril. The laser expanded into a big force field that grew bigger and bigger to surround Sasha. Ratchet saw what was happening and was filled with grief from the horror of the sight. "NOOOOO!" He then covered his eyes because he could not stand to watch any more of it.

Sweet Tooth was enjoying the terrifying scene that he had caused. He laughed so hard that he could not keep his balance. "Oh, THIS IS SO SWEET!" Once the force field around Sasha grew big enough, it blasted apart, creating a big wave of atomic power that almost covered the whole park area. Once finished, the park had puddles of acid that splattered around on the ground.

Ratchet opened up his eyes and saw a scene that was not so pretty: he saw Sasha lying down and burnt all over. He quickly went over to her and tried to feel her pulse and heartbeat, but he could not feel any. "Sasha! Speak to me! Do you hear me?" Sasha did not reply. Ratchet felt tears rapidly forming from his eyes. He now knew that all hope was lost.

Sweet Tooth laughed once more in triumph. "It looks like I'M the winner now! You're done for, Ratchet! You might as well give up now!"

Ratchet turned to face Sweet Tooth and breathed heavily with sorrow and defeat. "Why don't you take ME along with her," he hissed. "I'll be willing to die WITH her."

Sweet Tooth right away had second thoughts about killing Ratchet. Seriously, he thought. How does this guy do it? "Well, then. I guess I have no choice! If I kill you, you'll like it. You'll be with Sasha for all eternity. I'm gonna have to think twice about that. Instead, you're coming with me!" Sweet Tooth reached his hand out to grab Ratchet on the head, but something happened at that exact same moment: the nightmare ended.

Ratchet finally woke up to worst dream he had. He was lying in bed, at the secret hideout on the planet Veldin. He was on one of the two bunk beds that were placed on each of the two sides of the small room. On the other bunks were the archaeologist Nathan Drake, ninja warrior Raiden, and cute little Sackboy. And against the back wall was the robot Clank, shut down and sitting motionless.

Ratchet came to his senses a few seconds later, then thought to himself: It's just a bad dream. I'll soon forget about it. But what I cannot forget about it is the fact that my long-lost girlfriend Sasha was in it. It's been a long time since I've seen her. And now I'm worried that something terrible has happened to her, and I want to find out. Someday, I'll see her again, and I hope she remembers me.

Chapter Two – Lucky Lottery Ticket

The next morning, it was time for Ratchet and his friends Nathan Drake, Raiden, Clank, and Sackboy to do their weekly grocery shopping. The only place where they did their shopping was the mini-mart 7Eleven, next to a gas station.

The gang got the groceries that they needed, and it was time to check out for the day. But Ratchet caught sight of a box of lottery tickets at the check-out section. Wow, he thought. We can really use one of these. We can surely use a lot of money to cover for us, and we'll stay at an actual home. Also, we've got to use it for a good reason and purpose. Ratchet turned to face his friends and said: "You guys go on ahead; I'll catch up with you later." The other guys left with the groceries, leaving Ratchet alone to check out the lottery tickets. He looked up at the vendor who was selling the tickets and asked him: "How much will I win from this?"

The vendor looked down at Ratchet and responded: "Well, MegaMillions is giving away $5,000,000 to the winner, but PowerBall is giving away $50,000,000 to the winner. It's your choice; and I wish you the best of luck, especially because you're a nice Lombax."

Ratchet took a PowerBall ticket, paid for it, and hid it safely in his pocket. "Thanks, man! I can't wait to see if I'll win!" He stepped out of the store and met the others back at the hideout; and everybody already put all the groceries away.

Clank looked surprised to see Ratchet come in late. "What took you so long, Ratchet? Where have you been?"

"Sorry, Clank," Ratchet replied. "I was thinking about something. It's personal."

Sackboy thought that something was up with Ratchet; so he questioned him: "Gee, Ratchet. I seems like you're hiding something from us. Can you please tell me? I promise that I'll keep it a secret."

Ratchet half-smiled and replied: "I'll tell you later, buddy." He hopped onto his bed, pulled out his lottery ticket, and read the rules printed on it.

While he was doing that, Sackboy hopped onto HIS bed and started texting Sackgirl on his cell phone. Nathan Drake looked at what type of cell phone Sackboy had: a flip-open phone with key-pad buttons. Nathan walked over to Sackboy, pulled out HIS phone (a T-Mobile type with a touch-screen), and said: "Sackboy, two years is too long to wait. Get the latest upgrade from T-Mobile. Upgrade when you want, not when you're told."

"Sorry," Sackboy replied. "The types of phones that humans use have a touch-screen that only reacts to SKIN, not thread. I can never use a phone with that type of stuff!"

"Now I understand," Nathan said. "Let me show you what my phone can do." Nathan started showing Sackboy his phone's programming and apps, and Sackboy seemed pretty satisfied and amazed by the way it worked.

But Ratchet was not in the mood for stuff like that. After he had read all the rules, he was ready to try it out for real. He un-wrapped the ticket and looked closely at the challenge: he was to match three of ten different-colored ducks. And it turned out to be a match of three green ducks each with an orange beak. Ratchet gasped big, and his eyes widened in surprise. Immediately, he jumped off his bed and started to run out of the hideout room. But along the way, he bumped into Raiden, who was standing by the door. Ratchet caught Raiden's face and quickly asked: "IS THIS FAKE!?"

Raiden saw the ticket Ratchet was holding and noticed how three of the ducks matched. His face widened and replied: "That must not be fake! It SHOULD be a real ticket! Go and ask quickly!"

Ratchet ran out of the hideout and headed back to 7Eleven. He burst through the doors with excitement and rushed right to the check-out section of the shop. "Pardon me! But may I ask: IS THIS REAL!?" Ratchet showed the ticket to the vendor.

The vendor looked at the three green ducks and was put in a state of shock and surprise. "YES! YES IT IS! YOU JUST WON FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS! YOU WON! CONGRATULATIONS!"

Ratchet looked more surprised than ever. He started jumping and dancing for joy, and ran back to the hideout. He was so excited that when he arrived, he broke the whole door down. "WE'VE JUST WON FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS!"

Everyone else looked at him and felt like they were all going to explode out of excitement. They kept exclaiming: "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" They ran to Ratchet and looked at his ticket. They jumped for joy as well (Sackboy was the most energetic of them all). Quickly and loudly, they asked: "What are you going to do with the money!?"

"Well," Ratchet began. "We can surely use an actual house to stay at. We'll make a full moving day to buy a house, furniture, and everything! But here's the thing: we can do all that, as long as we can do something GENEROUS with the money as well. We can make a donation to a place where rejected children live. But what's a location where it holds a place like that?"

Sackboy thought for a minute, then he finally spoke up: "I know! We can donate a lot of the money to the Los Angeles Apple Orphanage; we can help pay for defenses to protect it from anything dangerous. We can protect it from Sweet Tooth and any other evil that tries to destroy it."

"You know what…" Ratchet replied. "I think that sounds like a GREAT idea! We know that Sweet Tooth is still out there waiting to destroy us, his hated enemies, and all the galaxies. We've got to do something about this; we've got to stop this evil and defend the orphaned children. We've got to become real heroes!"

Nathan pleaded at first: "We can't do that! This is money from VELDIN that we've won; it won't work for Earth. Only EARTH money will."

Ratchet sighed and looked at his ticket one more time. "I guess you're right. You're right. I'm making a big fool of myself."

"Well," Nathan replied, "you actually aren't. But there's always a chance to help the orphanage anyway. And we WILL put up defenses to help the little kids."

Raiden thought for a second, then he spoke: "You may have a point. I can ask Solid Snake for his support. Heck, even the U.S Government would be helpful enough to take care of those evil egos."

Ratchet smiled. "Alright, then! Let's go and give the orphanage a hand!"

Chapter Three – Los Angeles Apple Orphanage

On the planet Earth, the Los Angeles Apple Orphanage sat quietly still throughout the dark night. All the children were already put to bed and were sound asleep. One person in particular, Carl Roberts, was a very restless security guard. He had been that way ever since he competed in a few Twisted Metal battles. But every time he won, Calypso would not grant his request the right way. Carl would want the Twisted Metal contest shut down, and he and his sister Jamie had been asking for that every time.

The last time that Carl and Jamie confronted Calypso, Carl wanted to shoot Calypso in order to forcefully end the contest. But Jamie thought of all the damage that was already done to the world, and so she urged Carl not to shoot Calypso out of anger. Carl still wanted to end the contest by force, but Jamie wanted to think of another way. Then, unexpectedly, Carl said that he would have to shoot Jamie to get her out of the way of their victory. Jamie was surprised that Carl would shoot his own sister and wanted to know why. But Carl had no explanation; he was nervous about this and did not know what to do.

Jamie kept on pressurizing Carl about this, and it just upset Carl so much to say: "Shut up" over and over again. However, Carl should not have said that. For Calypso heard what he said and "fulfilled his wish" by silencing Jamie forever. Jamie no longer had the ability to speak or cry out. Now Carl would never forgive himself for doing that evil deed of shushing Jamie up.

Every night, when he would be on guard duty, the thought of what happened would keep on intriguing him. Sometimes, tears would come to his sorry eyes. He began to hate Calypso more and more because of what he did. Carl even started to hate himself for his attitude. If only it never happened, he would think to himself. If only I would have shown more kindness instead of anger. If only I would have shown some brotherly love. But instead, I talked like a monster! What kind of cop am I!?

Right then, a knock on the front door was heard. Carl went over to the door and opened it, revealing Ratchet, Clank, Raiden, Nathan Drake, and Sackboy standing there. "You happen to be here late at night," he said to them quietly.

"We're just here for an idea," Ratchet replied. "I'm Ratchet the Lombax from the planet Veldin. These are my friends Clank, Nathan Drake, Raiden, and Sackboy."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Carl Roberts of the L.A.P.D. You've probably heard of me before, last time you've been here in Los Angeles."

"Yes, I do remember. I was here to free Nathan Drake from Sweet Tooth's nasty little prison. Everything went worse until Sackboy here set all the prisoners free from the prison."

Sackboy jumped up and down in joy of remembering that happy event. "That's right! But I wasn't the ONLY hero that did such great work."

Ratchet was surprised at what Sackboy said. I guess he's right, he thought. We are ALL heroes, and we will help bring freedom to this land! "Anyway, as I was saying, perhaps you would like to listen carefully. If by any chance, may there be a time when shields and defenses be loaded here to resist any enemies that come by?"

Carl's expression was a bit blank, mainly because of what Ratchet was saying. "Ratchet… you speak nerd. But I'll give it a chance. You mentioned Sweet Tooth, so that gives me the clue that he is still at large and may have accomplices. However, how are we going to protect the children and not just the building?"

"We were thinking about building a 'fun tunnel' in the ground for the kids to go down and hide for when enemies are near. The bad guys will never find the children in there, for it will be disguised as the ground itself."

"Sounds pretty clever, actually. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ratchet, I accept your offer! We'll be starting this tomorrow morning at daybreak."

And indeed they built the hidden area the next day; but not all of it. It took about one month total to bring together everything; metal, lights, room in the ground for all of it to be set. The ground needed to be dug up twenty feet deep, then the metal needed to be in place of the ground's soil (in order for placement of the walls, ceiling, and floor). The lights were hung up, connected to the underground electric wires, and lit up the area brightly (especially also for night time). Once it was finished, everyone was satisfied with their work.

Clank walked over to Ratchet to tell him some urgent news. "I'm receiving a transmission through my built-in comlink. It's from someone important!"

"Play the transmission, Clank," Ratchet replied. "I want to hear who's calling us."

"Certainly!"

Clank picked up the call that was sent to his robotic cranium, and a familiar-sounding voice spoke: "Ratchet? Are you there?"

Ratchet's eyes widened to hear the voice of his old friend speak. "Galactic President Qwark? Is that you?!"

"Of course it's me. How can you forget the most handsome president in the galaxy? I need to ask you a favor…"

Chapter Four – Invasion on Marcadia

On another planet, Marcadia, things were going rather normal. The president of the planet, President Phyronix, had almost come to an end with his presidential term. As he sat alone in his office, he thought about how his retirement would be; reuniting with his daughter and living a happier life. He would not have to worry about contracts and bills for dealing with his political opponents from other planets and live a normal life throughout his retirement years. Everything would be going pretty well for him and his daughter Sasha.

But he thought about of it for too long; Sweet Tooth had arrived on the planet and began running through the halls of the main building. The president finally snapped out of his thoughts once he saw that Sweet Tooth had burst through the door of his office. "Greetings, Phyronix," Sweet Tooth said. "It's surprising to see you're about to leave office."

President Phyronix looked up at Sweet Tooth and was surprised to see a random villain in his office. "What is this about?! Who are you!? What are you doing here!?"

"Your majesty," Sweet Tooth said as he stepped forward toward President Phyronix's desk. "Members of the Marcadian Congress, I shall hereby change things up a bit. Because you are about to leave office, I shall completely change this place from Marcadia to Twisted Metopolis; the capital of my kingdom!" Sweet Tooth laughed maniacally in great triumph for this moment.

"What do you mean," President Phyronix questioned. "You're not part of my congress, so you have no right to just come in here and take over! You're mad!"

"Oh really?! Well, then. I'll just have to do this the easy way for ME and the hard way for YOU. This ought to bring you to your knees! Mr. Grimm, please come in!" Sweet Tooth called for his assistant Mr. Grimm to enter the office, carrying a familiar-looking person wrapped up in rope. President Phyronix recognized it as his daughter Sasha. Mr. Grimm had been sent by Sweet Tooth to head for the planet Kerwan and snatch Sasha from the Metropolis government. It was also a useful plan for threatening President Phyronix that Sasha would be killed on the spot if he didn't hand over his presidential position. "NOW will you give me your chair!?"

"NO! Not my daughter! She's too soft! Take ME instead!" President Phyronix was brought onto his knees because the pressure made him crack.

Sweet Tooth was surprised to hear Phyronix's plea for taking HIS life instead of her daughter's. "Are you sure? You want a repeat of how the American president Abraham Lincoln got shot and killed in office? This is going crazy!"

"Just let her go NOW! I'll do anything for you!" President Phyronix's face looked desperate enough; it looked like it was going to explode.

"ALRIGHT! FINE! TAKE HER! DO YOU WANT HER!?" Sweet Tooth motioned for Mr. Grimm to toss Sasha down to the floor and untie the ropes that bound her up. "There! Happy!?"

Sasha got up and ran toward her father, who wrapped her in his big arms. "Oh, dad," Sasha whimpered. "It's so glad to see you again! Who are these people!?"

Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm stepped forward and introduced themselves. "I am Marcus Kane; otherwise known as NEEDLES Kane. I changed my name to Needles to hide my identity from my father. But you can just call me by my alias name SWEET TOOTH." He waved a hand and showed Mr. Grimm to President Phyronix and Sasha. "This is my assistant; Mr. Grimm. I'm helping him receive the position as mayor of Metropolis on Kerwan. I do hope you find him suiting enough to be a worth assassin."

Mr. Grimm drew out his sharp reaper-sword and posed himself to look intimidating. "It's true: I am quite a dangerous foe. Check me out, puppies!"

Sweet Tooth snatched the reaper-sword from Mr. Grimm's grip and said: "Now is not the time for showing off; we have business to do!" He handed the sword back to Mr. Grimm, who put it back into his sheath with a sneer on his face. "Anyway, if there is to be a new president of Marcadia, that would definitely be me! I had studied all night about politicians and how to pass laws. And I'm going to have to pick the correct people to run for congress, or more likely "CLOWNGRESS!" Sweet Tooth laughed at his own joke, but President Phyronix frowned and fought back with his words.

"How dare you! What you just said is not what a president even DOES! And if you want to take position in ruling this planet, people are going to have to VOTE you in!"

"Oh, don't worry," Sweet Tooth teased. "The only way that I'm going to take this place is to take it by force! I know I'm not a terrorist, but I've got an army of clown minions and sweet bots waiting outside your building. If you would take a step outside, you would see for yourself that you are surrounded by my powerful forces! And, I've also got my evil ice cream truck, also a spaceship, locked and loaded with weapons. It is all-powerful, full of surprises and explosive treats for all my enemies. It also contains my great atom manipulator that can explode acid onto my victims!"

"Well," President Phyronix sighed. "I guess I have no choice. It looks like you beat me."

Sasha was surprised at how her father easily gave up. "Daddy! What do you think you're doing?! You can't just give up like this; we have to fight back at them! We can't let these people overcome our strong forces!"

"I hear you, my daughter," her father replied. "However, Needles Kane here is too strong. We've got to think of some way to defend our world against these invaders! But how!?"

Right at that moment, the sound of a cell phone rang in alarm. It was coming from Sweet Tooth's phone, tucked deeply into his pocket. It also vibrated while ringing the "Twisted Theme" that Sweet Tooth set up for it. He slipped the phone out of his pocket and flipped it open to read on the screen the name of who was dialing his number. He read the name and was shocked to see the name shown; it was Galactic President Qwark!

Formerly known as CAPTAIN Qwark, Galactic President Qwark is the main president of the outer galaxy itself (not the galaxy with Earth and everything). Other presidents rule their planets while Qwark rules over ALL the planets, giving the presidents commands and laws to fulfill. He finds himself as a very handsome alien man; he is big and muscular, has a humungous chin and always wears a green mask over the top-half of his face.

Sweet Tooth did not want to talk to this handsome man. He rejected the call by slipping his phone back into his pocket. "I'm NOT going to answer! I'll just let the dang phone ring until it finally stops! It might take days, maybe weeks, and maybe forever and all eternity. I'll let it ring infinitely!" But after two minutes had went by for waiting, Sweet Tooth finally cracked. He was tired of hearing the same ringtone go on over and over again. He sighed and finally picked up the phone and answered the call. "Hello! This is Needles Kane! What do you want! I'm busy!"

"Hello there," Sweet Tooth heard a voice say through the phone. It was indeed Galactic President Qwark himself, calling Sweet Tooth for a favor. "I hear that you are at President Phyronix's office about to take over. Am I right?"

"Who told you this!?" Sweet Tooth gasped and felt like he was about to vomit.

"A friend of mine told me to spy on you. I've got lots of guts to go around the galaxy hunting down criminals and locking them up safely. In fact, let my FRIEND talk to you and explain his reason."

Sweet Tooth heard about three seconds of silence, then he heard a familiar-sounding voice speak to him: "Hey, dummy!" It was Ratchet!

What the heck, Sweet Tooth thought. Now I'm REALLY going to puke! This is ridiculous and is definitely getting out of hand! "What do you want!? If it's anything soft, I'll cut your head-tails off and burn them in the hottest acid!"

"I've got news flash for you, boy." Ratchet began to state his plan: "I'm teaming up with Carl Roberts and giving defenses to the Los Angeles Apple Orphanage."

Before Ratchet continued his talk, Sweet Tooth interrupted after hearing Carl Roberts' name. "Wait a minute! Did you just say Carl Roberts?! Ha! He's such an idiot at times! I remember when we used to fight together back in the days of Twisted Metal."

"Don't butt in," Ratchet continued. "Let me finish! Anyway, as I was saying, if there was anything that would dare attack the orphanage, it would be all our enemies. But they wouldn't stand a chance, because we're making a secret area that YOU would have no clue of where it is. It's superbly camouflaged! You might as well surrender now!"

"You're not in a position to demand anything, you nasty little pincushion," Sweet Tooth snapped back. "I've captured your friends, and I'll flee them through space to bait my trap! The galaxy; I'll take on the entire galaxy once I gain my place as ruler of Marcadia!" Sweet Tooth laughed hysterically about his moment of triumph, but he coughed in the process of doing it too hard.

"My friends…" Ratchet whispered to himself. If Qwark says that Sweet Tooth is over at Marcadia, then that must mean… SASHA! "SWEET TOOTH! STOP! You can come over and hurt me, but don't hurt any of my friends! PLEASE! I beg you!"

"AHA! Now you commit surrender! Well then. Mr. Grimm…" Sweet Tooth was about to command Mr. Grimm to bring out a weapon from the evil ice cream truck, but then he stopped himself. He just realized what Ratchet was up to. "Ah, very clever of you, Ratchet," He hissed. "But bringing me over there… and sacrificing yourself… will not save your friends."

"Looks like you just read my mind. Just get over to Earth and meet us there for a lively conversation. And bring Sasha and her dad over too. They are part of this circumstance, you know."

Chapter Five – Meetings

Pretty soon, everything was set. Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, Sasha, and President Phyronix arrived on Earth, landing in the location of the Los Angeles Apple Orphanage. Sweet Tooth heard something speak to him on an intercom in his ice cream rocket ship: "Meet us at the orphanage's underground hideout. Ratchet out." Sasha was surprised and excited to hear Ratchet's voice again, but Sweet Tooth frowned and pleaded instead:

"So… If Ratchet's expecting you, Sasha, I'll make sure that you don't get in touch anymore, once I become president of Marcadia."

Sasha stepped out of the ship and scoffed at Sweet Tooth's sentence: "You're always trying to break up friendship! What is wrong with your heart!?"

"On the contrary, Sasha, I have no heart!" Sweet Tooth smiled and evilly grinned at Sasha's objection. "I am rotten all over, and I show no kindness to heroes! Now get your butt down there!"

The group of four walked to the back of the orphanage building, where inspection took place. Sweet Tooth felt around the ground to look for the lid of the secret hole, covered by the fake grass and soil that were used to camouflage it. "This looks like the spot." He bent down to lift the lid; and when he looked inside, he saw a pile of mattresses into pillows that looked to soft for him. Sasha giggled as she saw what Ratchet had put down there at the bottom of the climb down. But Sweet Tooth sneered instead. "This is too soft! I don't like this style! But anyway, get in!"

Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, Sasha, and President Phyronix jumped down into the hole and landed onto the bouncy cushions. After that, they had to follow a tunnel that leads to the main room; the hall had light bulbs hung on the ceiling that glowed brightly for everyone to see. Once they reached the main room (a wide-open spaced area with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling), they saw seven chairs all aligned in a circle. Some people were already seated at their chairs, and some were not.

But Ratchet was in his seat. And when he saw Sasha, he immediately sprang up from his chair and went over to her to give her a very big hug. "SASHA! It's been a long time since we've seen each other!"

Sasha was happy to see her old friend as well. "Ratchet! Is it really you!? I did miss you after all this time! And now we're together again!"

Ratchet and Sasha started chatting for a long while until Sweet Tooth had enough of their little act; he exclaimed: "SHUT UP! No one wants to see romance at an orphanage! Let's get down to the story, shall we!?"

Ratchet and Sasha sat back down and replied: "Of course, we can! But one of us is still not present." For most of the guests were already ready for the great meeting: Ratchet, Sasha, President Phyronix, Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, and Galactic President Qwark (who constantly kept looking in his little mirror to check his looks). After about fifteen minutes of waiting, the final person to walk in made everyone gasp. President Phyronix and Sasha did not know who this man was and asked: "Who are you?"

The man was totally recognizable to Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm. His smile was hideous. He spoke: "My name is Calypso. I am the founder of the Twisted Metal competition." He took his seat and continued speaking: "Sweet Tooth may have taken over the contest at one point, but I managed to come back to grant peoples' wishes. But I am not here to discuss about that; for I have a plan that shall NEVER fail: I want this Los Angeles Apple Orphanage to be handed over to me at once. I want to use it as a Twisted Metal battleground for the next contest to be held. But if you do not give it to me and try to defend it, then your worst nightmare will come true. Do you remember the time when Agent Stone, driver of Crimson Fury, won the contest years ago? Well, his request was to win a tape-recorder that captured the audio footage of certain sabotage. It recorded a U.S Air Force Pilot being shot by an alien U.F.O. Agent Stone wanted to prove to the world that there is an alien invasion that is about to come. But before I tell you more about it, I must tell you a little something first: Commander Mason (who used to drive Warthog) wanted the exact same thing, so the U.S Government can build a weapon so powerful it can destroy the entire world. They wanted to build that particular weapon so that it can destroy all planets where aliens live. Mason won the contest and brought home the tape-recorder as his prize. But Agent Stone wanted that recorder more than anyone would ever imagine, so he defeated Mason and left him dead, and he got the recorder as his prize. And he has proven us right: WE ARE NOT ALONE! I had the power to manipulate the Tyhrranoid race and form an alliance to send down to this puny planet. For two reasons I would do this: to prove that Agent Stone's theory is true, and to take down the whole planet by force if you did not hand over the orphanage. You won't stand a chance against me! I have allies, you know."

Sweet Tooth heard Calypso's piece, then began to tell of his plan: "Well, Calypso, you do have a good plan. But mine is better. You see, the president of Marcadia, President Phyronix, has already gone over his term as president. And since his turn is over, it's about time that someone took his place. So I decided to try and become the next ruler of the planet. There will be new laws, changes, and all things will be under my command! And as my first presidential decree, I will order the Los Angeles Apple Orphanage to be shut down and handed over to me personally so I can use it as a Twisted Metal battleground! I shall have my contest open before Calypso can make his move. And I'm sure that Mr. Grimm has something to say as well. Care to do the honors, Mr. Grimm?"

Mr. Grimm readied himself to do his part of the talk: "Thank you, Sweet Tooth! As a loyal mayor, I shall make things better in the city of Metropolis on the planet Kerwan. But here's the thing: being a mayor can be really stupid sometimes. You have a lot of money only to give away to the government and to the public. And plus: there's a chairman that rules over you at the same time that you're mayor. And here's another thing: according to the government rules of Metropolis, you cannot make any phone calls or contacting due to your duty as mayor. It's all really stupid! I don't want my cell phone confiscated. But perhaps Sweet Tooth will be nice enough to make a new law that makes a duty of being mayor better."

Galactic President Qwark overheard what Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm had said. He finally spoke up: "You're both wrong, clown and skull! I, Galactic President Copernicus Leslie Qwark, think differently. I am the president of the alien galaxy, and there are presidents of the alien PLANETS as well. But I have higher authority over THEM, so I make the rules fairer for them. And if you became president of that particular planet, Sweet Tooth for Marcadia, I would rebel against the idea and impeach you! There's nothing you can do. And if Calypso wants to bring back the Tyhrranoids, I'm going to help with defenses to protect all those homeless kids! It's MY presidential decree: we will make all defenses possible and fight back!"

President Phyronix spoke with all his honor and dignity: "Perhaps if Needles Kane wants to play it HIS way, then I guess I have no choice. Wait a minute! That's it! I just realized something! Presidents can have a second term in office if he can win votes to be put back in. I'll DEBATE myself back in, and be voted. And, yes, I will help with protecting the orphanage as well. You're going to need all the defenses in order to keep the orphanage from crashing down."

The president's daughter Sasha spoke up: "My father is making a great idea. I'd be more than willing to help vote him back in. But I shall stay here and wait until my father has won back in, and I shall help with protecting the orphans and bringing the enemy to justice!"

Ratchet was the last to make his statement: "That's right! We will not hand our orphanage over to these full-time criminals! We shall not shut down the place and let the kids perish! We shall lead us to victory and be actual heroes!"

Sweet Tooth scoffed at Ratchet's statement. "Heroes!? Hah! That's really ridiculous! All the times that you've fought us, you've never actually won any battles! When I locked you and Nathan Drake up in my great prison, I was merely thrown by Sackboy to land into Heihachi Mishima's wrath. And when we 'battled' in the Opposite Dimension, my atom manipulator merely melted the car Opposite Yellow Jacket, then I quickly went away from that dreaded place once the portal hole formed to take us back here to the real world. You call yourselves heroes?! I think that's ridiculous!"

"That's what YOU think," Ratchet replied. "We will not be overcome by evil, but we'll overcome evil with good! We are the defenders of this orphanage, and we will never give up for as long as we live!"

Everybody clapped and cheered at Ratchet's statement, except for the villains. Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm got up from their seats with a frown on their faces. "Fine," Sweet Tooth said. "We're going back to Marcadia and we'll be the greatest politicians that you've ever known!"

"Don't count on it, buster," Galactic President Qwark replied. "Even if you DO become president of that particular planet, I'll still be in charge of you!"

"I'll stop by later to hunt you down, Qwark! Come on Phyronix! We are leaving!" Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm walked out of the tunnel and went back to the ice cream ship. President Phyronix got up from his chair and bid everybody good-bye, then he walked out to prepare for the presidential debate.

Sasha said her good-bye to her father: "I believe in you, Dad!"

Qwark said good-bye as well and left for his ship. The last one to leave was Calypso, and another hideous smile touched his lips. "Well, then. I guess I WILL have to send the Tyhrranoids down here after all. I'll stop by to make sure that you're dead in conclusion of this. See you around, failure! You're no hero!" Calypso walked out to exit the tunnel, but right when he reached the area of the cushions, he found Sackboy lying there.

Sackboy stood up and became face-to-face with Calypso. "Hold it there, Calypsucker! THIS ought to change your mind! You can never underestimate the power of cuteness!" Sackboy began to pull the cutest look on his face; his black button eyes widened big, his mouth made a big frown, a tear formed from his eye. Everyone else came to look at him and thought that it was adorable.

But Calypso growled and yelled at him instead of showing sympathy. "Ugh! That's disgusting! It's not going to work, Suckboy! You'll soon die of this invasion before you know it! I shall kill you in every way you fear, with my stare!"

Sackboy looked even sadder and lowered his head down. "I hope you're wrong about this," he said quietly.

Calypso climbed the ladder that led to the surface and out of the secret hole.

Ratchet and Sasha looked down at Sackboy and gave him their comfort: "Don't worry, Sackboy. We'll fight to finish and beat those guys no matter what. And we promise you that we'll never let you die in this, the same as how Sasha and I promised each other."

Sackboy looked up in hope. "Thanks Ratchet. I'll never forget this." He climbed the ladder to exit the secret hole, leaving Ratchet and Sasha alone to be the last ones in the tunnel.

Sasha looked at Ratchet and inspected his expression, trying to get the truth out of him. "Where have you been all my life?"

Ratchet smiled and replied: "Far away, Sasha. Far away. But don't worry; we'll get to know each other more later on."

Chapter Six – Preparation

After Calypso left the orphanage, he started to head for a strange-looking spaceship that was painted with green and grey. He opened its door and climbed inside to turn on its engine and fly off. He flew toward a Tyhrranoid control ship that had been floating in the sky for a while now, with Tyhrranoids piloting it.

The Tyhrranoids used to be usual evil aliens until a scientist known as Dr. Nefarious (used to be a bad robot, now a good robot) had transformed the entire Tyhrranoid race into a mad race of evil alien robots. Calypso was able to control their minds to follow every one of his commands.

Once Calypso went aboard the control ship, he walked into the main piloting room, where Tyhrranoids worked hard to put the ship into perfect flight. An assassin was working with them, a skeleton warrior wearing thick armor and a sheath, holding his long samurai sword. This was Yoshimitsu, the dark evil ninja. He spoke to Calypso once his eyesight caught him: "Are we ready?"

Calypso smiled hideously and spoke back: "Indeed we are. You start the invasion while I go make the new 'Twisted Theme.' And this time, I'll add LYRICS to the full-out heavy metal melody. Maybe I'll hire the lovely Miss Courtney Gears to do the feminine singing. She's the hottest robot pop-singer in the galaxy! In fact, I'll sing WITH her on this; I'll sound just like Robin Thicke!"

Yoshimitsu turned his head back to ignore more of Calypso's craziness about the circumstance. "Robin Thicke is the worst singer I know! But now is not the time to talk about this; we've got an invasion to start!"

Meanwhile, Galactic President Qwark went aboard HIS main star cruiser, showing his troupe the plan that was agreed to operate.

"Will it be an easy one, Captain Qwark," questioned Dr. Nefarious (who was now part of the team).

Qwark sighed. He felt that this would be so uneasy to do; considering the fact that Calypso is sending a whole invasion of Tyhrranoids, also Sweet Tooth becoming the new president of Marcadia. "I… am not so sure," he responded quietly. "I'll think about it. In the meantime, ready everything for combat." He walked away slowly, his head hung down in worry. Would this be a victory for the heroes?

On Marcadia, Sweet Tooth and President Phyronix sat themselves down at a round table, preparing for the presidential debate.

Sweet Tooth pulled out a metal circular badge from his pocket and showed it to Phyronix. "I decided to do this ahead of time: I finished making these 'Vote for Sweet Tooth' badges for everyone who loves me!"

President Phyronix took a good look at the badge. He noticed that there was an error in spelling Sweet Tooth's alias name. "It says: 'Vote for SWEAT Tooth.'"

"What?!" Sweet Tooth looked confused and took another glimpse at the badge. President Phyronix was correct.

"The alias name; it's spelled the wrong way. It's supposed to say: 'Vote for SWEET Tooth.' But saying 'SWEAT Tooth' is actually funnier."

"You embarrass me too much, Phyronix! But anyway, let's begin, shall we?!" Sweet Tooth grinned big at this moment of receiving his new president's chair. Taking office would be his dream come true.

Back on Earth, everything was being set up for battle. But, so far, nothing had happened. It took about two weeks total to collect weapons and ammunition being sent from several different companies. That would be the average time period that the presidential debate on Marcadia would take.

On the last day that weapons and artillery were shipped to the army of good guys, Solid Snake arrived with just the right stuff. Raiden and Ratchet went out to meet Snake and receive the supplies. "So," Raiden began speaking. "I see YOU'VE come back for more, haven't you?"

"Indeed I have," Snake replied. "This stuff is just the thing you need to fight off that crapface freak."

"What's the cost?"

"No cost at all. But if you do even the least bit damage to this valuable stuff, it'll cost you a lot. Be careful, alright?"

"Don't worry," Raiden chuckled. "At least we'll be doing this to protect children, eh?"

Ratchet closed his eyes when he heard the word "children" be said. He swore to everyone, including himself, that he would protect these orphaned children at all costs. "This is what I'm fighting for," he whispered. "I shouldn't worry. I must do this!"

At that moment, Sasha came running toward Ratchet, looking worried all over. "Ratchet," she exclaimed. Ratchet opened back his eyes and took a good look at Sasha. It gave him a clue that there was terrible danger going on, and Sasha looked scared to death about it. "I'm still worried about something! I have that terrible feeling that something awful would happen! If Calypso's sending down an army of Tyhrranoids to attack the orphanage, then that means the baby isn't safe!"

Ratchet's thoughts snapped back into place. The baby, he thought. I forgot all about him! He needs to be put into the secret underground tunnel now! "You're right, Sasha! I'll go to him now! In the meantime, arm yourself well and get a good shield. I'm worried about you too, Sasha. So you need not die in this battle."

"And I'M worried about you Ratchet. Everyone is." Sasha sighed heavily in all the stress that she applied for this moment.

"This will be my most challenging battle ever," Ratchet whispered. He started stroking Sasha's face. He thought that she would be the last face to see before death would come his way. Unless Sweet Tooth would come and kill Ratchet out of revenge for all the things that he had done; Sweet Tooth's face would be the last to see when the psychotic clown comes for the kill. "Sasha," Ratchet spoke. He stopped for a moment, then right away kissed Sasha on the left cheek. "I love you." He went away for the baby right then.

Sasha was about to burst into tears; she was surprised about what Ratchet had done to her. She stroked the spot where Ratchet kissed her; the spot on her left cheek. She kept on asking herself that same question over and over again: Does he love me? Does he love me? Is it true? A tear formed from her left eye, streaming down her face and landing at the spot that Ratchet kissed.

Ratchet went inside the orphanage building and headed for the bedroom where the baby was sleeping. He found the room and started walking toward the baby's crib, all worried about death coming to the poor little thing. He picked the baby up and gently rocked him back and forth to comfort him. "It's gonna be alright," he whispered to him. "I'm gonna take you to a safe place where no one can harm you. I'll make sure that no evildoer comes to kill you; not even Sweet Tooth, Mr. Grimm, or Calypso. I'll make sure that they NEVER come."

"But I will; me in particular," whispered a familiar-sounding voice in the background. Ratchet turned to see Sweet Tooth standing right there, where the baby would easily be in the psycho-clown's grip. "I know. It's strange; I lost the Marcadian presidential debate, and Phyronix is now re-elected as president of Marcadia. I do hope that Mr. Grimm is still doing his best to take over Metropolis on Kerwan. You know how tough he is; he can fight back resistance.

"Anyway, to cheer me up, I became the only person to wear my 'Vote for Sweet Tooth' badge (even though my alias name was spelled wrong). And secondly, I came here to do this!" Sweet Tooth stepped a little closer to the baby in Ratchet's arms.

Ratchet thought that Sweet Tooth was going to snatch the baby away. "Over my dead body," he hissed. He began to sweat heavily, while his heart started beating hard.

"No, Ratchet," Sweet Tooth replied. Unexpectedly, he pulled out a gun and POINTED IT AT THE BABY'S HEAD! "Over a gun!"

Chapter Seven – Sweet Tooth Spills the Truth

Sweet Tooth's pistol was locked and loaded, pointing at the poor baby that slept motionless. Ratchet gasped big at the horrible sight of the gun aimed at the baby's head. The head had grown very few hairs; black ones about to have their hue darker.

Ratchet's expression grew angrier at Sweet Tooth's plan. "You wouldn't dare," he hissed. "I swear you'll be dead as well!"

"Oh Ratchet," Sweet Tooth chuckled, shaking his head. "I've never seen you so angry. But before I shoot this little one, I must tell you another tale."

"Oh great," Ratchet did not want to sit through another story. "Here we go again!"

"One day, I was in search of Calypso to grant a great wish that I had. This happened after that warp explosion occurred, bringing almost everything back to normal. This time, I wanted to find my daughter Sophie Kane. I had her as my daughter after being in Calypso's old Twisted Metal circus for years. Until my stupid split-personality Marcus came and was mistaken to be me as a more sane father. He won my family's heart! And one day, Marcus shall pay!

"Anyway, once I beat Calypso's contest and asked for her as my prize, Calypso gave me a big surprise: SHE WAS DEAD. That's right! I ended up stuck in her coffin with her skeleton; I couldn't make it out alive no matter how hard I struggled. I died right on the spot, but that was not all: I soon became a living dead villain; an undead psycho-clown; a zombie! I still have the memory from when I was a full man, and I've come to seek revenge!

"But that's not what I came here for! I must tell you: before I headed for Calypso, I stopped at a nearby hospital in Los Angeles. I stayed outside the building to keep myself hidden, then I looked through a window and saw someone in there. I recognized the man as one of the people who teased me of being insane. His name was Mark Barone. How I hate his name even now! He was there with his wife, Betty Barone, who had just given birth to their new baby. And that baby is the one you're holding right now."

Ratchet looked down at the baby he was carrying in his arms. "This is their son?"

"Yes, indeed. I hated Mark Barone even more when I saw that he was married and had children. I went into the hospital, drawing out my big knife, and started a big killing spree. I started with Mark and Betty first; they were the first on my list to kill and have revenge on. And kill them I did, before they had the chance to name their baby. But I still had more work to do on this; one of the nurses took the baby away for safety. She was agile enough to hide him from my grim grip. Now I have come here to do what I've come here for and finish the job! Say 'nighty-night' to the little guy!"

"How dare you," Ratchet hissed. "Don't you know anything about innocence?!"

"On the contrary, Ratchet, I only find MYSELF as innocent! Bye-bye sucker!"

Ratchet closed his eyes tight; he did not want to see something horrid happen to the baby as it did to the baby's parents. He held the baby as tight as he could, but not too tight to suffocate him.

But then, something peculiar happened.

Ratchet did hear the bang of a gun go off. Then there was complete silence. However, in about three seconds, Ratchet heard Sweet Tooth pant and breathe heavily. He opened his eyes and saw Sweet Tooth's right hand no longer holding the gun. The gun was now lying on the floor with a black bruise across the right side of it. Then he looked at Sweet Tooth's hand again and saw blood dripping from the wrist. Sweet Tooth fell down onto his right side and fainted.

Ratchet then heard a familiar voice speaking to him: "That man is an utter fool, of course." Then, surprisingly, Calypso walked over to Sweet Tooth's unconscious body, knelt down and examined Sweet Tooth's damaged hand. "These are not the proper hands to hold a sweet gentle baby. Perhaps I should take the little one for now."

Ratchet backed about five feet away from Calypso. He did not want the baby to be in the hands of a man far more evil than Sweet Tooth. "Not you," Ratchet went on hissing. "I can't ever trust evildoers to be with this poor little guy!"

"But it's only fair," Calypso continued, "that only a HUMAN can take care of a HUMAN baby. As for you, you are an alien. A hated alien! One species cannot raise another, which proves that this human baby cannot follow the rituals of an alien. An alien cannot be a human's parent."

Ratchet understood what Calypso had said, but he knew that Calypso was only taunting him. "Sorry, big guy! You have no right to say that! It doesn't matter about what species someone is, but about the relationship that builds the two species' character."

"Is that so!?" Calypso came over to Ratchet and quickly snatched the baby from him. "Don't worry: I'll keep this little guy comfortable. I'll make sure that he grows up to not be insane like you aliens are. Good-bye now, Mr. Ratchet! And farewell! Life is sort of a… pain in the neck!" Calypso walked three feet backwards and pulled out a remote controller from his pocket.

"You can't take him away," Ratchet complained. "He's too soft. You can't hurt him!"

"Too bad and too late for 'Mr. Alien Freak!' Pretty soon, everyone would hear the stupid words of this alien freak and his species." Calypso pressed a button on his remote controller, causing a white light to shine around him and the baby. It was a transport to take him and the baby to the main Tyhrranoid control ship.

Ratchet tried to jump into the light so that he can be taken to the control ship along with them and save the baby. But the light was too bright for his big eyes; it made him drowsy and dizzy. When the light faded, the only thing that was in the dark room was the baby's crib, Sweet Tooth lying on the floor still unconscious, and Ratchet fainting in a heap. He landed onto the floor with a great big thud; he blackened out, and everything became dark.

Chapter Eight – Ratchet in the Sewers

After about ten minutes, Ratchet woke up and found himself in a weird-looking sewer; a giant tube carrying green sewage liquid that he was sitting in. Glowing light bulbs hung on the ceiling of the tube, glowing very dim. He stood up and wiped some sewage off his face, then looked around him, seeing that he was stuck in this wasteland. This does not look good, he thought. I'm stuck! Now I'll NEVER be trustworthy enough to protect other people! I'm a fraud! But I've got to get out of here! It's about time that I told all my friends that I'm sorry.

He started running through the tube, the boots on his feet splashing through the sewage. The whole scenery was pretty disgusting, and things were about to get more ugly. After one minute of running, he found a certain area of the sewer; a four-way fork in the path containing a television screen playing static. Ratchet crept into the area, but the moment that he stepped in, all the sewer lights went out, and Ratchet stood there alone in the dark. But he was not alone for long. The television screen finally stopped playing static and played a strange transmission, and Ratchet's attention was quickly drawn to what was playing on the screen. The transmission showed Sweet Tooth's ugly face, speaking of something sinister:

"Hello there, Ratchet! I'm glad to see how your face drops at the sight of something like THIS: it's about time that I propose an offer to your ex-girlfriend Sasha." Sweet Tooth knelt down on one knee in front of Sasha (looking down at Sweet Tooth in surprise) and pulled something out from his pocket. It was a ring box, and the sight of Sweet Tooth holding that made Ratchet gasp in horror and disgust.

"YOU BETTER NOT," Ratchet exclaimed loudly. "IF YOU TOUCH HER, I SWEAR… YOU'LL BE DEAD!"

Sweet Tooth went ahead and did it anyway: "Sasha, will you marry me?" He opened the box, revealing a wedding ring that would fit on Sasha's finger.

Sasha gasped so hard that she hardly had the chance to breathe and say something. But before she could, Ratchet right away smashed the TV screen to bits with his Omniwrench. He screamed in anger at the terrifying sight of the offer. He did not want to see any more of it. Imagine: SWEET TOOTH, asking SASHA to marry him! What a scary coincidence! Ratchet immediately burst into tears about this situation. "This is too much for me! I don't ever want this to happen! Sasha is MY girl, and is not to be tampered with by any of MY worst enemies! THIS IS ALL SWEET TOOTH'S FAULT!" He sank to his knees, splashing in the sewage, and just could not hold back tears of this circumstance. "Now how is everybody going to trust me!? Because of that stupid clown, it may be possible that Clank, Nathan, Raiden, Sackboy, Carl, and Sasha are all not going to trust me now! I should have made things right when I had the chance! I can't do ANYTHING now that I'm stuck in a sewer!"

Ratchet just had the biggest stress in his life. It seemed like NOTHING was ever going to be better for him now. Until then, someone appeared from one of the halls and walked into the fork in the path. Ratchet looked up to see who it was, and instantly, he recognized the figure as Sasha. But he had not the nerve to speak to her or say anything at all.

"Ratchet," Sasha spoke. "It's me, in the flesh. You would never believe what happened earlier. That horrid man who calls himself Needles Kane tried to marry me, but I resisted. I almost fainted when he asked me that particular question. I had no other choice but to run to you for help." Ratchet did not respond. Instead, he simply sat there with his head down, feeling really bad about what happened. "Ratchet, I'm talking to you."

Sasha came closer and put her hand on Ratchet's shoulder. But that made matters worse: Ratchet quickly drew out his Omniwrench and stabbed it into Sasha! It turns out that she was actually a robot facsimile, while the REAL Sasha was somewhere in the city of Los Angeles above the sewer that Ratchet was stuck in. Electrical sparks exploded out of the robot, wires were cut in half, and the facsimile fell to the floor with a splash in the sewage.

"Well then," Ratchet hissed to himself. "I shall do whatever it takes to bring back the REAL Sasha, and find that baby!" Calypso must have taken the baby into captivity aboard the main Tyhrranoid cruiser. Or maybe Yoshimitsu has it somewhere, and he's waiting for Ratchet to try and rescue it, or die trying! Ratchet only had one choice to make: "My gut tells me that the baby is somewhere around here in the sewer," he continued hissing. "And I'm gonna go and find him! I swear it!" Ratchet ran off to wherever he wanted to go, through whichever direction he chose, through whichever pipe he thought would lead him closer to his destination. Until then, when he made his final turn, he ended up facing a dark alley of the sewer. The whole area in there was pitch-dark, but Ratchet remembered what he promised: "I shall do whatever it takes." So he right away ran into the dark alley.

Chapter Nine – The Battle Begins

On the surface, the conflict began. Tyhrranoid ships were already coming in, shooting their cannons and dropping off other Tyhrranoid battalions. The aliens roamed across the city, setting many buildings and streets on fire. But the good guys (Nathan Drake, Raiden, Sackboy, Carl Roberts, Sasha, Galactic President Qwark, and other hired soldiers) fought those evil creatures off with all their might. They used all the weapons that they could gather in order to take down the Tyhrranoid gunships as well. It was a very crucial battle so far, and it would get worse every ten minutes. Bombs burst in the air while Tyhrranoids roared their evil battle cries. Bullets flung everywhere while soldiers cried out in pain. It was one of the bloodiest battles that anyone had ever fought.

After a long while, Sasha stopped firing her laser-gun at the enemy Tyhrranoids. She stood still in the middle of the battlefield and became further intrigued by that same question: "Does Ratchet really love me? I must find out. But… where the heck is he!? I hope he didn't die… with the baby!"

But she stood for too long; pretty soon, a laser bolt scorched her on the shoulder. She grasped where her arm burned and yelled out in pain. One Tyhrranoid in particular, the one who shot Sasha's arm, walked closely toward her and pointed his gun at her head. "I'm not done," the Tyhrranoid said. "Now it's time for me to finish the rest of you off!" But Sasha did not lose hope in this; she turned around, grasped the Tyhrranoid's wrist, and squeezed it real tight. She turned his hand clockwise, up until it was at the point of breaking. And break it did; and it sent the Tyhrranoid to his knees, crying in pain.

Sasha turned and left the Tyhrranoid behind. She began to run toward the orphanage and burst inside the building. She found the room where Ratchet had been earlier. Ratchet was no longer there, and neither was the baby! All she saw was Sweet Tooth lying on the ground in pain, waking up from a terrible knock-out.

Sasha went over to Sweet Tooth and, desperately in the stress, questioned him about Ratchet's whereabouts. "Where's Ratchet, Needles! Please; tell me where he is NOW!"

Sweet Tooth looked up and groaned. "I won't tell you ANYTHING! Ratchet won't come back no matter how hard you beg!"

Sasha pointed her laser-gun at Sweet Tooth's chest and tried prying into his thoughts. "If you don't tell me where he is, I'm bringing you down! Now where is he!?"

"Okay! You beat me! Calypso took him and the baby to the sewers below! That's all I know!"

"You've already told me enough!" Sasha put her gun back in her holster. "That's all I want to know. Now get out of our orphanage!" Sasha ran out of the building, heading for the nearest entrance to the sewer.

"And if you come back," Sweet Tooth muttered, "I'll be waiting for you!" He laughed again, drawing out his big dagger.

Chapter Ten – Ratchet versus Yoshimitsu

While the battle on the surface raged on, Ratchet had already stepped into the dark alleyway of the sewer. He saw that there were some light bulbs lit up in that particular area as well. It was a long, dark tunnel; it contained a path area that looked like a sidewalk. Next to it was a big stream of sewage water, sitting still without movement.

Ratchet stepped into the clear area and started to run throughout the tunnel, looking for the baby and seeing if there were any enemies hiding in the shadows. And sure enough, there was one in particular: Ratchet saw a pair of wings; two on each side of someone's back. The enemy jumped out into the open to reveal himself: it was the assassin Yoshimitsu. "Hello there, Ratchet," Yoshimitsu said as he drew his long samurai sword. "The emperor has seen how clever and skillful you are."

Ratchet now wanted to ask questions to Yoshimitsu; who was this emperor that he spoke of? "What emperor? What are you talking about?"

"The one who had killed your father and mother in the past. The one whom you had avenged to set things in the right direction. But on the contrary, you have not won yet! You still have to deal with Calypso and I; we are still evil tyrants who will take this earth and claim it as ours!"

"Sorry, bub," Ratchet replied. "This earth is not for sale; you can't have dibs on it. And one more thing: don't ever speak of my parents again! Only I shall worry about them."

"Oh really," Yoshimitsu talked back. "You think you can have your precious birthright over killing Emperor Tachyon, but it will never work! You're gonna have to get through ME if you want to steal our show! Well let me tell you something, mister: you are not funny! There will always be a doomsday waiting for us, and it's going to overcome our feelings and twist our minds until it's all over! You'll soon realize that there's doom in the room!" He showed Ratchet a basket set on the ground behind them.

Ratchet went over to the basket and took a good look at it: he saw a bundle of white cloth wrapped around something familiar-looking. There was the baby; Ratchet finally found where it was. Now I know, he thought. After Calypso had taken it from me, he gave it to Yoshimitsu to keep it under custody and use it as a bait to draw me here. By the way, did I ever get any better? "Alright, Yoshimitsu," Ratchet finally said. "If you want this baby, you're gonna have to get through ME first! Come get me!" Ratchet drew out his Omniwrench and began to swing at Yoshimitsu, but Yoshimitsu blocked the attacks with his long sword.

It was a furious battle; it was the hero versus the villain, both trying to gain the upper hand and win the baby as his prize. But the baby had not opened his eyes to see the battle that occurred around him. He was calm and fast asleep, not responding to whatever spoke or made sound. Instead, his tiny eyes stayed closed; he never awakened to catch anything in his attention. Every time Ratchet looked down at the baby lying there, the thought of saving him always came to his mind. He reminded himself to keep on fighting in order to bring down Yoshimitsu.

But Yoshimitsu kept on fighting as well. For most blows that came from the Omniwrench, he blocked and deflected them with the armor plates that he wore on his arms, legs, and torso. Even for the ones that came to his head, he survived them using the horned helmet on his skull head. He knew of himself as the almost invincible assassin that would surely win this victory. "Now I shall make as many cuts your petty little body to make you perish and die!"

Ratchet looked down at the baby for the final time; and it WAS his final because when he looked, he received an unexpected blow from Yoshimitsu. It hit Ratchet's face; and pretty soon, he collected a black right eye as his consequence of distraction. "Now," said Yoshimitsu in triumph. "You shall suffer the same as how your father did!"

However, he spoke too soon. He and Ratchet heard some thumping noises coming from the back of the dark tunnel. It was pitch-black as it went on throughout the area, and something had been lurking in that one particular area. Out of the ebony space in the back came something very large: it was a giant purple truck with pink spots on it, also having a giant spinning flaming evil clown head on top of it. Ratchet and Yoshimitsu recognized it as giant evil ice cream truck Dark Tooth, once owned by Charlie Kane, then by Sweet Tooth and his split-personality Marcus Kane. Sweet Tooth and Marcus had used Dark Tooth before in order for Sweet Tooth to obtain the stronghold of Tower Tooth.

Dark Tooth drove itself forwards and sped directly to Yoshimitsu. "I can't let this happen," Yoshimitsu exclaimed. "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" Dark Tooth came close enough to bash into Yoshimitsu and drag him across the sewer. Yoshimitsu was held on Dark Tooth's front hood and was carried away to enter the previous part of the sewer that Ratchet had already been through. That was all that Ratchet saw of Dark Tooth for now; Dark Tooth dragged Yoshimitsu away and did not come back after that.

Ratchet was relieved that Dark Tooth had served his purpose; not because it dragged away Yoshimitsu, but because it did no harm to the baby. Things would have gone worse if the son of Mark Barone had died, and the generation would not continue on to make the family expand. Ratchet went over to the baby still lying in his basket and picked him up to check his heartbeat. It was still beating well and the baby was still alive. "Well," Ratchet whispered softly. "You're still good. If anything had happened to you, it would be a complete disaster. Sorry I sound distraught and insane; I'm just trying to recover from battle. But I'm just glad that you're still good. I'm here for you buddy."

But it was not over yet: Ratchet heard something coming this way from where Dark Tooth had left the sewer. It seemed more like a person walking through the alleyway than Dark Tooth returning. Ratchet readied himself for if it was another enemy approaching.

It was a surprise to see something familiar coming. It was Sasha, looking all over the sewers for Ratchet. "Ratchet," she called out. "Are you there?"

"Sasha!" Ratchet got up and carried the baby over to Sasha to hold. "I've been worried sick about you! That horrible man Needles Kane was lying down hurt. I asked him where you were and even threatened him. I interrogated his mind with a special serum to tell me your location. He told me that you were here in the sewers."

"Sweet Tooth told you I was here?!"

"Well, yes! He also told me that the baby was here. Along the way, I also saw something that looked like Needles' vehicle. Except it was bigger, darker, and more dangerous than the one that Needles drives."

"You saw Dark Tooth?! Did you see that it was carrying Yoshimitsu away?"

"Indeed I did. How's the baby?"

"He's still breathing."

"Good. I feel as though evil is still lurking everywhere. Our work is not yet done."

"Exactly: Calypso is still out there causing the invasion to occur even now! We've got to get to the bottom of this right now! The whole world's in terrible danger, and so is the orphanage! We've got stop Calypso in his little act or else everything falls apart! Come on!" Ratchet and Sasha (holding the baby) followed the trail that Dark Tooth took to exit the sewers. Once they would escape, they would find themselves in a heap of a battle.

Chapter Eleven – Ratchet Versus Sweet Tooth

Once Ratchet, Sasha, and the baby made it out of the sewers, they looked around at Los Angeles and saw how damaged it was. The battle-ravaged buildings were flaming with hot orange fire. Everything looked so gloomy and miserable. Ratchet and Sasha did not like the looks of things.

"This does not look good," Ratchet said. "We better stop the enemy quickly before it gets worse."

"Of course," Sasha replied. "You may never know where one could be hiding…" She stopped slowly. She felt as if an evil presence was somewhere lurking in the shadows.

And indeed, there was one who hid behind a tree. A shadowed figure raised a hand and threw what looked like a pink torpedo, aiming itself at Ratchet and Sasha. The torpedo formed an explosion filled with devilish laughter; Ratchet recognized it as the laugh that comes from Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck! "Sweet Tooth's near," Ratchet exclaimed. "Quickly, take the baby back to the orphanage! Do it fast! On the double!" Sasha started to run in the orphanage's direction, but Ratchet just thought of something. "Sasha, wait!" But she did not stop. She kept on going, holding the baby in her arms and trying to be as gentle as she can.

Ratchet wanted to apologize to Sasha for barking orders at her even though she was mayor of Metropolis. Kerwan is not going to like this, he thought. This gives me an uneasy feeling. I shouldn't be bossing her around after all that she's done to run the city of Metropolis. She is of Kerwan government and shouldn't be treated like that. But I'll have to worry about that later. Right now, I've got to stop Sweet Tooth before he gets any closer to the baby!

Ratchet took out his Omniwrench and prepared himself for head-to-head combat with Sweet Tooth. And in exactly ten seconds, Sweet Tooth emerged from the shadow of the tree he was behind and swung his big knife at Ratchet. The two of them fought a big duel throughout all the chaos that was going on in the battle around them. Tyhrranoids running around and setting things on fire, Galactic President Qwark's forces shooting down the Tyhrranoids in gun combat, Nathan Drake and the others using all of their weapons to wipe out the enemy as well, Ratchet and Sweet Tooth duking it out with their Omniwrench and dagger clashing at each other. Everything was going berserk in one crazy, dark battle.

At one point of the fight, Sweet Tooth threw Ratchet down to the dirty, battle-ravaged ground and raised his big knife up. He was about to throw it back down to finish Ratchet off for good, but he stopped himself. Ratchet looked into Sweet Tooth's eyes, and it seemed like he had something to say. "Perhaps I had been too hasty," Sweet Tooth said. "I had not told you enough." He lowered his dagger slowly and stood up to tell his tale.

"When I kept you in my prison, I told you merely MOST of my story; not all of it. Remember what I told you about the ring of souls? The souls escaped from the ring and made a big blast of energy, burning off all of Calypso's hair. I also told you that I became a FREE MAN after the aftermath of the explosion. Well, I lied! I just said that to taunt you. The explosion made my clown face a permanent part of me. It was a heavy curse put upon me; I did not want this face anymore. Until one day, Calypso went back to hosting Twisted Metal and assured me that he would grant my wish of getting rid of this curse.

"Much, much later, I met Calypso again (this time with his hair growing back) while I had my split-personality Marcus as my captive. I wanted my mind to be in Calypso's body while Calypso's would be in mine. He did not want that to happen, but I FORCED it to happen. Our brains switched and traded each other's bodies. I controlled Calypso's body and gained his handsome looks. Now I was the master of Twisted Metal again, and I decreed that Calypso would be executed. He never liked using my body. He was killed anyway because of the conspiracy that I caused.

"But he was not dead for long. Remember that warp explosion that Marcus mentioned while we were at the Opposite Dimension? Well, pretty soon, it happened. It separated me from Marcus, and it brought everything back to where it was before I asked for the curse to be removed. Calypso and I got our normal bodies back, and now he's causing this invasion."

Ratchet still had to ask Sweet Tooth the one question that he had been thinking about: "What about your father? What about Charlie Kane?"

Sweet Tooth frowned and did not answer. "That does not matter! What matters is that I get my victory here and now! I've always wanted to try cooked Lombax!"

Ratchet continued his battle against Sweet Tooth using the only weapon that he had. But Sweet Tooth was not helpless; he also had brought an arsenal of a new type of weapon. He had recently invented pink exploding energy spheres that scream his devilish laughter when they are being thrown. He launched them at Ratchet, staying true to his phrase of "cooked Lombax." But Ratchet was armed as well, and began deflecting the energy spheres as they were about to reach him. Every time one ball would be reflected back, it would bounce on the ground a couple of times, then explode into nothingness. It was one of the most intense battles that Ratchet had experienced.

Until then, Sweet Tooth had enough of what was going on. He stopped throwing his spheres and poised himself to make another attack; he was about to leap at Ratchet and pin him down to the ground again. But by then, it was too late for him: Ratchet quickly pulled out a stylish gun, pointed at Sweet Tooth, and fired an electric net out of it, wrapping itself around Sweet Tooth and keeping him captive. The net that bound up Sweet Tooth sparkled with electricity, shocking him with such impact.

"Don't worry," Ratchet taunted. "I hope you don't die in there. Pretty soon, a police car will come and pick you up to take you to jail. I don't know why you chose to be involved in this Tyhrranoid invasion, but it just makes you look dumb."

"You'll regret this, Ratchet," Sweet Tooth hissed in reply. "I'll get you no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing. And if I find Sasha with you again, I'm gonna scream. Or else I'll make it a DOUBLE kill; a bonus point for me."

"I hope that doesn't happen." Ratchet ran off to unite with Sasha, leaving Sweet Tooth behind to lay there for the police to come and capture him. I hope Sasha and the baby are safe, Ratchet thought. If they are dead, I'm gonna scream like Sweet Tooth said he would. But along the way, he saw a peculiar-looking laser beam of many colors, pointing up at the sky. Who could possibly be controlling that thing, Ratchet wondered. I've got to get to the bottom of this right now!

Chapter Twelve – Conclusion

Ratchet followed the trail of the beam to where the orphanage was. He burst through the doors to see what was happening inside. He ran throughout all the halls and checked to see what was going on, but he found nothing anywhere he went. Until then, he finally reached the dining room and was shocked to see Sasha tied up on one of the chairs, with duct tape slapped onto her mouth. But that was not the only thing that was alarming: Ratchet also saw Calypso, in the flesh, standing next to a machine set on the dining room table. The machine was pointed upwards; shooting the colorful beam that Ratchet followed to here. It shot a hole in the ceiling, and created a portal hole in the sky above. And there were the army of Tyhrranoids soaring down in groups of ten; in their mini-ships and carriers, shooting down at the city.

Ratchet stepped in front of Calypso and started the big debate against the main bad guy. "Why are you doing this?!"

Calypso frowned angrily and replied: "To prove to my daughter that I am a worthy father!"

Ratchet did not know what was this guy was saying. "Who's your daughter?"

"Did you not know? My daughter is Krista Sparks, the driver of the car known as Grasshopper. Let me tell you a little tale: a few years ago, it was the end of the school year. My wife and I were picking up Krista from her school and we were happy to see each other. But we were in a terrible traffic jam, and we were supposed to get back home on time. I thought to myself: If only I can just kill all these people to get them out of the way! This is ridiculous! Then the idea right away came to my mind: Of course! Why didn't I think of this before?! I shall turn my little Twisted Metal circus into a contest of power and destruction! This is astounding!

"But I should not have thought about it for too long. Because pretty soon, Krista was telling me that the traffic jam was clear and that I could drive on. I should've listened to her, because before I knew it, someone behind us hit us hard. His car bashed into mine, and we were thrown forward. Our car completely flipped over, and it started a fire! My face was burnt beyond recognition when it landed into the flames. But I was more worried about Krista than my face, so I looked throughout the rubble of our car and found her CORPSE! That's right; she was dead. It grieved me to see her dead; I would never forgive myself for what I have done! Even my WIFE was dead as well; and I was left all alone.

"So, after a few matches of Twisted Metal occurred, I was ready to give the winner her prize. But I did not know that the winner was actually my daughter. I did not know that she drove the car Grasshopper until now. When she came to me she stepped out of her car. Yet, I was confused: I did not know how she was alive after she was killed in that car crash. But then, she told me that the L.A.P.D rebuilt her as a cyborg, and they wanted me to stop the whole competition. And if I didn't, then the time-bomb that they installed in her would blow her to bits. 'Hold me, daddy,' she said to me. 'I'm a machine now and I don't know what to do.' It was a sad thing. I could not say anything, so the bomb blew her up.

"It was all too much for me! But there was something that had to be done. A long while after Sweet Tooth and I fought over the ring of souls, I had the power to bring back Krista's ghost. Once she beat another Twisted Metal contest, driving Grasshopper (imagine: a ghost driving a car), she did not seem to like me anymore. She was upset that I had merely brought back her ghost instead of her whole body. She wanted to be a whole human again, and also wanted me to stop all the violence and bring world peace. I brought Krista back to her normal self, but it had its hazard! Being a human again made her end up in the hospital with a terrible coma; and the doctors said that it would last throughout FIFTEEN YEARS! Imagine: being in a coma for fifteen years with no one to talk to. I was filled with such shame and grief to see her mind grow weary. I did not want it to be this way!

"Don't you know how horrible it has been between Krista and me?! Until then, the warp explosion occurred, causing time and space to be changed. All was how it was before was reversed: I had my beautiful long flowing hair back, and it gave me a hint that my daughter might be alive again! So that's why I'm using this warp hole machine as a signal to come to me." Calypso pointed to his machine while Ratchet looked up at the sky above them.

Ratchet recognized the warp hole that was placed in the sky. He remembered seeing that exact same hole: it was the one who brought him, Sackboy, and Sweet Tooth into the Opposite Dimension. It gave him the evidence that it was Calypso who brought them to the Opposite Dimension to trap them with each other. He wanted them to fight amongst themselves while using Dark Tooth, but he thought that the battle they put up was pathetic. Plus, Calypso did not expect Sweet Tooth's split-personality, Marcus Kane, to come into the scene.

Ratchet looked sad about the story that Calypso had told. "Krista would have loved you if you were never this way," he hissed.

Calypso's face widened with surprise at Ratchet's statement. He gasped and slapped Ratchet hard across the face. "How dare you speak of my daughter that way! She would love me no matter what I'd do!"

All of a sudden, Calypso heard something, like a soft voice begging for mercy. "Daddy," it said. "Do you love ME?"

Calypso turned to look behind him, seeing a teen girl with short blonde hair, and wearing a white dress. He recognized the girl as his daughter Krista Sparks. "Krista," Calypso whispered as she walked towards her slowly. "I knew you would now be alive."

Krista spoke softly and went on with her saying: "Dad, Ratchet's right. Perhaps there should be more love in the air. If only you would stop this invasion, and please stop this nonsense of violence in the world. Please make the world a better place."

Calypso wanted to refuse Krista's request; he tried to reason with her: "Krista, I'm doing this for you! I can hand you the whole WORLD on a silver platter if you want to!"

"But daddy, I don't want to take over the world like you do. All I want is world peace; I always thought that nature would always be beautiful forever and ever. And I want it to stay that way. I don't want any damage done to this place. Please, daddy! Do it for me, and the children of the orphanage; the children of the world!"

Calypso was shocked to hear what she said, and he had no choice but to do as she said. "Very well, then. I'll do it." He walked over to the warp hole machine and pressed a button to turn it off. The colorful beam vanished, and the warp hole in the sky closed. No more Tyhrranoids came to invade; all the other ones that landed were killed in battle. All was settled, and Krista was happy to see her father do this.

"Thank, you daddy. I'll never forget this." Krista disappeared in a matter of seconds. Ratchet and Calypso were amazed to see her magically vanish slowly before their very eyes.

"How…" Calypso whispered, with his head vibrating, tears forming and streaming down his cheeks. "It was merely a vision. But I had to do it anyway." Ratchet looked at him with great pity; stopping the invasion was all that Calypso could do.

Ratchet went over to Sasha still tied up on the chair; he unwrapped the ropes that bound her and carefully removed the duct tape from her mouth. Sasha smiled at Ratchet and said: "Everybody has a second chance, right?"

"Of course, Sasha," Ratchet replied. "Everyone does." This meant that Ratchet was already forgiven for barking orders at Sasha earlier. It was all okay.

But Calypso had not stopped the invasion just yet. There was still one more Tyhrranoid control ship that remained floating in the sky. It turns out that that particular control ship was piloted by Yoshimitsu. He had escaped from Dark Tooth's grasp and made it out of the sewers, then went to pilot that control ship.

"Attention people of Los Angeles," Yoshimitsu announced. "This is your last chance to surrender. I have stolen Sweet Tooth's atom manipulator and installed it into this ship. And I'm going to use it against you!" He started up the atom manipulator machine, and it started to generate up, taking about one minute to do so.

But at the ten-second mark, Yoshimitsu saw something shocking coming his way. He all of a sudden saw the big truck, Dark Tooth, SHOOTING ITSELF RIGHT TOWARDS HIM! Nobody has seen Dark Tooth fly in the air before, and this was the first time, a very surprising happening. Yoshimitsu knew that he had no time to fire the atom manipulator down at the city, so he physically jumped out of the control ship, flapping the four wings on his back and shooting down a touchdown. "Not again," he exclaimed.

Dark Tooth reached the control ship at high speed, and it collided and exploded along with the ship. It was the biggest explosion that anyone in Los Angeles has seen. And the gang; Nathan Drake, Raiden, Sackboy, Clank, Ratchet, Sasha, Carl Roberts, Galactic President Qwark, and Calypso were there to see it unfold. They quickly united together and watched the debris fall onto the ground. I wonder who did that, everyone would think. Could it be one of us and we don't know it?

The explosion had caused smoke to billow everywhere. And once it cleared, everyone was surprised to see Kratos, the god of war, standing in front of them. Kratos laughed with glee at his success. "Did you see that? We were brilliant at using Dark Tooth to bring that ship to bits and shambles!"

Ratchet was confused at Kratos' saying. "What do you mean 'we?' The rest of us didn't do anything about it."

Kratos laughed again. "What I mean by 'we' are me and Big Daddy. Come out here, Big Daddy!"

A walking machine came out of a shadow and introduced himself. "That's right! I'm Big Daddy. Kratos used his great strength to pick up that heavy Dark Tooth thing, and I connected my power wavelength to it to control its direction. Kratos and I are now heroes!"

That's when Ratchet felt uneasy. All this time, he wanted to be considered a hero of Earth. But instead, Kratos and Big Daddy had to get in the way of fame. This meant that he was not a hero just yet. This is not what I wanted, he thought. I have not done any of the hero work to actually win this battle. It was these two that had done the hero work. I've failed.

Just then, a red car had driven right into the area. When Calypso turned to see it, he gasped; he recognized the car and knew who it belonged to. A man stepped out of the car, and was wearing a black suit and tie, sunglasses, and had short black hair. In his arms he was holding the baby, safe and sound from any harm. "Calypso wanted to erase this guy's memory so that he would never know how to be alive," the man said. "I am Agent Stone of the U.S Government. I am the driver of this car known as Crimson Fury. Perhaps Calypso had told you about me."

Ratchet remembered how Calypso told about Stone listening to the recording of the aliens. "Yes, he has," he said. He saw the baby in Agent Stone's arms and thought: The baby's in luck! Stone must have taken him from and Calypso's evil grasp. And it's a good thing that the baby is still alive, or is he?

"Well then," Stone went on. "I must inform you that we now have Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm under custody. It was difficult to pry Mr. Grimm from the authorities of Kerwan; he was the toughest, he just kept on fighting back. But we were able to bring him back here to Earth. Sweet Tooth is to be questioned by psychiatrists like he was years ago. And Mr. Grimm will become a tombstone designer and not take any dead person's soul."

Carl Roberts stepped forward and gave a command: "We shall put Calypso and Yoshimitsu under arrest as well. What will be their requirements?"

Agent Stone smiled and replied: "Yoshimitsu will be put under some heavy martial arts training the RIGHT way. Physical combat will be taught until his brain cries. And as for Calypso, he will have to be in prison with no requirements whatsoever. He shall stay in there until he promises never to make a contest like Twisted Metal or send an alien invasion or cause damage and destruction."

Calypso stepped forward and said what he did: "I was the one who caused the warp hole to close. I stopped the invasion myself. I'm going away now. Farewell, friends." Calypso turned and walked away from everybody else. "I shall go into hiding until I find out what to do next. I'm sorry." He kept on walking until he disappeared from sight. But that was not all that happened in the end.

Agent Stone handed the baby over to Sasha and had a big smile on his face. "You're never going to believe this," he said.

Sasha took a good look at the baby's face. "His eyes are open," she exclaimed with happiness. "He's finally awake." The baby looked calm and normal. He could almost pull a smile and look at all the friends that surrounded him. He did not care about the fact that he was with other creatures such and Ratchet, Sasha, and Sackboy. All he knew was that he already made friends to care for him.

Ratchet saw the baby with surprise. "This is a day to remember. And today, we shall name the baby after his father: Mark Barone. We'll keep him in good company until he turns old enough to move out."

Agent Stone was not done talking just yet. "By the way, I must tell you: even though you have not won the victory of this battle, you are still considered heroes. At least you did SOMETHING to stop the invasion. You ARE heroes."

Kratos stepped in and said: "The guy's right. Feeling hopeless means nothing to you; you still have the power within you to help break free from sorrow and sadness. You can fight to help save the world and your friends."

And after all that the heroes and villains had been through, there was still the best to come. The aftermath of the big battle was not at all a failure to ANY hero. Everybody had their good luck in the end:

Ratchet and Clank bought a PowerBall lottery ticket from EARTH and won fifty million dollars.

Sackboy went back to his home world and met his friends.

Nathan Drake went back to his hobby of being an expert archaeologist.

Sasha became mayor of Metropolis again, remembering Ratchet in her will. Kerwan became a peaceful planet again.

Sasha's father was re-elected president of Marcadia, no longer having to worry about Sweet Tooth.

Raiden returned to his job with Solid Snake and fought evil robots.

Galactic President Qwark once again ruled the galaxy with fairness (nobody knows why he dumped a basket of fruit in the trash later).

Carl Roberts' sister Jamie gained back the ability to speak (a request that Calypso had to grant by force).

Sweet Tooth frowned every time he was being interviewed by a smiling psychiatrist.

Mr. Grimm was required to design tombstones in a non-violent manner.

Calypso is still in hiding, and nobody knows when he would come back.

Krista Sparks is still in her coma; it was estimated that she would not wake up until she turned thirty.

In the end, Ratchet also wrote a book about his amazing adventures. On the first page, he wrote: "In memory of my loving father and mother."


End file.
